LABOUR leader Jeremy Corbyn will visit the region today to unveil a package of measures to support the armed forces and veterans.

He will join shadow defence secretary Nia Griffith to meet military personnel in Hartlepool and announce the plans to help benefit veterans, serving personnel, and armed forces families, if Labour are elected.

They will greet military personnel at the Heugh Battery Museum on Hartlepool's Headland before heading to meet veterans in central Middlesbrough, ahead of Armed Forces Day.

He is planning to announce five pledges, after Labour said new House of Commons Library research showed that after almost a decade of a public sector pay cap, a private's starting salary is £1,159 lower in real terms today than in 2010.

The party's pledges include scrapping the public sector pay cap which it said has caused a 5.8 per cent real terms pay cut for the starting salary of an army private; decent housing for forces and their families to end the growing reliance on the private rented sector, and creating a representing body for servicemen and women, not a trade union but an organisation similar to the Police Federation.

Labour also plans to end privatisation with a root and branch review of outsourcing and a presumption to favour public delivery of public contracts.

It is also planning to support forces children by providing better access to schools with a dedicated local authorities admissions strategy for the challenge of frequent school moves.

Mr Corbyn said: “Today we make our pledges to our service personnel to give them the pay, conditions of service and respect they deserve.

"Labour will guarantee a better deal for all those who serve in our Armed Forces.

The government has delivered short-sighted defence cuts and failed privatisations that have let down personnel and taxpayers alike.

Nia Griffith MP, Labour’s Shadow Defence Secretary, said: “As a country, we are rightly proud of our highly-skilled servicemen and women, ready at a moment’s notice to do whatever is necessary to defend our country.

“The next Labour government will guarantee a better deal for servicemen and women."